Where is Your Happiness? Past,
Present, or Future?
Achieving a level of
personal happiness previously unknown is much closer than you think. But first,
it’s important to stay in touch with the present.
“Stay in touch with
the present? I’m thinking…I’m already IN the present!”
Well, certainly we
all are in the present, since there is nowhere else to be, but that doesn't mean our thoughts are in the present. And therein lay the challenges to our own
personal happiness.
We as humans are the
rarest of all species in that not only can we think, but we can think about our
thinking.
And you can use this
process of being aware of your self-thoughts to help you achieve contentment.
It’s important for you to challenge what you see and believe. This insures that
your view of the world matches reality. So often what we believe is the truth,
is nothing more than glimpses of the past, present, and future.
We often take only
the bad from the past, quickly breeze through the present, and falsely make up
the future. The result is frequently guilt about your imperfect past, anxiety
about a future that doesn't exist, and impatience with the Now.
But it is the Now
which can help us to live our lives today, fully alive, happy and content. Rarely
do we allow ourselves the opportunity to enjoy the moment. But the moment is
the only reality we know. It is exactly the way it should be and it cannot be
anything more than that.
But we repeatedly
make it out to be different. And by doing so, we have lost the opportunity to
fully experience the rain, the children playing, the learning to be achieved by
listening to the world seen through a grandparent’s eyes, or a friend sharing
one of his or her own moments. Too often we are too caught up in what will
happen, or what has happened, to experience what IS happening.
This is not to say
that planning for the future is unimportant, or that reminiscing is not useful
and enjoyable in itself. But unfortunately, too often we become entangled in a
future that has not happened and become stifled by our predictions.
We run from the
saber tooth tiger that no longer exists in our modern day world. The tiger has
been replaced with confronting a friend, giving a speech, driving over a
bridge, or feeling discomfort from changing a habit. We create absolute horror
from an uncertain future that we make real in the moment.
Staying in the
moment awards you the opportunity to see the world as it is, not as you believe
it should be. It allows you to observe the truth, to look at real data, not
information couched in fears and anxiety.
And it is this
truth, which will allow you to enjoy yourself, others, and the world around
you. Because, it is exactly as it should be. You can manage any life event that
presents itself. Why?? Because everyone does. You can choose to do it with pain
or without pain. The evidence for these statements is present in the moment.
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